Retro-bit Super Retro Trio Plus HD system - mini review

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
Don't buy. End of review.

Not that most of you were going to, I know this. I'm a sucker for a ton of these types of devices and I assume there are at least a couple of you that might've been eye-ballin' it. I keep hoping someone, someday will get it right. Nobody has.

I bought into this one because youtube "reviews" seemed overall very positive. The PAL systems had some issues, but I wasn't buying one of those so I took a chance and bought one.

$80 [insert long fart noise]

NES image quality is best on this thing, not RGB modded NES-good, but very good.

SNES is slightly blurry with some noise. The kind of noise that would drive SSD3 complainers nuts.

GEN is a mess. Noise and terrible audio.

Basically all the positive reviews are bought and paid for with free junk. Avoid.
 
Last edited:

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,490
Lame. It sounds like they went the Retron HD route: The way that system works is they used the existing Nintendo on a chip (composite output only) and just ran composite through a crude HDMI converter and it looks and sounds like garbage. But most youtubers liked it.

For that money spend a few more bones on a Retro Freak. It's not a perfect device but it's pretty swell.
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
Lame. It sounds like they went the Retron HD route: The way that system works is they used the existing Nintendo on a chip (composite output only) and just ran composite through a crude HDMI converter and it looks and sounds like garbage. But most youtubers liked it.

For that money spend a few more bones on a Retro Freak. It's not a perfect device but it's pretty swell.

Do you have the Retro Freak? Was super curious about that one. I know it doesn't work with flash carts though.
 

Colorado Rockie

Terry Bogard's Taylor
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Posts
1,680
That's really what it's called? Lol. Thanks for the writeup. All these aftermarket systems never had any appeal to me.
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
That's really what it's called? Lol. Thanks for the writeup. All these aftermarket systems never had any appeal to me.

hahaha YES, so lame. Just ONCE, I wish Hyperkin or Retro-bit would pause just for a second and consult the "gamer community", for just like, ONE ROUND of Q.A.

Can you imagine? Their hardware is capable, the controllers are nice, it has all the features you'd want [except for a switch to adjust aspect ratio and maybe a scanline filter]. But, that makes my point. With very little effort they could double their sales. I don't even think they listed this hot garbage on Amazon because of the return policy. But if this had the kinks ironed out, it would be the GO-TO clone for those 3 systems. That would be amazing. I just don't understand why not try? I know, I know...these are cash grabs. They have no intention of making something that destroys any reason for them to make another "new and improved" version a year later...but come on.
 

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,490
Do you have the Retro Freak? Was super curious about that one. I know it doesn't work with flash carts though.

Yeah, I've had a Freak for a few months. It doesn't work with flashcarts, but you can put your roms on the SD card with no fuss or hackery. I've mostly just ripped my own carts though, except for NES since I don't have a converter that works with it. It's a pretty neat system, quality varies a bit by system although it does everything fairly well.

Famicom: Acceptable, has a slight amount of input lag. I don't use this anymore since I got a Retro AVS.

SNES: Plays pretty well, a touch of lag. The SNES classic has a better emulator and you should use it instead unless you need to play an original cart.

Genesis: Outstanding. This is the reason I keep the thing. If there's any lag I can't detect it. I beat Shinobi 3 on it last night, and if anyone has beaten it you know that last level is a platforming nightmare.

PCE: The video doesn't scale the PCE's resolution perfectly, but otherwise it plays great. It does Supergrafx too, but I don't have any SGX games to test.

Handhelds: They're gonna look like ass on a big TV no matter what, but they play great. I've put a good amount of time into Donkey Kong 94 on this. It can play Game Gear and SMS as well either through an adapter I don't have, or by sticking some roms on it. I haven't tested it though.

The included controller is an okay SNES knockoff, but it comes with a USB adapter that can take real NES, SNES, Genesis, and PCE controllers. More often than not I use a 8bitdo pad with the SNES receiver for wireless action, it works perfectly.

Overall, it's not a perfect device and there's room for improvement, but I dig it.
 

Morden

Somewhere in Europe.,
Joined
Jul 5, 2005
Posts
711
That's really what it's called? Lol.

I actually thought this was a joke thread judging by the title. What's next? Hyper Retro Blast Mega 4K Super Turbo?

they used the existing Nintendo on a chip (composite output only) and just ran composite through a crude HDMI converter and it looks and sounds like garbage

Because that's what you do when you want to sell a device to people who want the best picture quality for their retro games. Ridiculous. How can you even recover from something like this as a company?
 

ggallegos1

Cholecystectomy Required.,
10 Year Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2013
Posts
5,153
I actually thought this was a joke thread judging by the title. What's next? Hyper Retro Blast Mega 4K Super Turbo?



Because that's what you do when you want to sell a device to people who want the best picture quality for their retro games. Ridiculous. How can you even recover from something like this as a company?

Simple: because it's cheaper. Theyre targeting new collectors who don't care so much of picture quality as playing their overpriced nostalgia carts on a modern display. The die hard like us already have alternative means to play these in as perfect or a form as we can, so in that sense we are not the primary market.
 

MrRobotFactory

Kuroko's Training Dummy
Joined
Sep 17, 2013
Posts
78
I had to Google "Retro-bit Super Retro Trio Plus HD system" because I thought it was a made up title. Well fuck me, its real and it looks like a pos. I've never been into these kind of consoles. Let the younger generations of collectards eat this shit up.
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
What's worse is the video emulation/driver for the Genesis games has that wavy quality you get from emulators with no hardware support or video filters to smooth the scrolling. I would say that Genesis on this is completely unplayable.
 

Morden

Somewhere in Europe.,
Joined
Jul 5, 2005
Posts
711
Simple: because it's cheaper. Theyre targeting new collectors who don't care so much of picture quality as playing their overpriced nostalgia carts on a modern display. The die hard like us already have alternative means to play these in as perfect or a form as we can, so in that sense we are not the primary market.

Collectors ... What does that even mean, and how does it apply to those crappy x-in-1 consoles? They're either emulation or cheap hardware, but cost premium for some reason. Having RGB as an option in real Megadrive and SNES, you have to be retarded to invest this much money in a Chinese famiclone with composite signal ran through a cheapo scaling circuit.

I know people want solutions that are ready to go, and don't want to solder RGB amps or other circuitry, but there sure seems to be a market for upgraded original hardware. I know the highest profit margins are in the Chinese crap, but real hardware is the only way to fly. I'll take a flash cartridge or a multi kit plugged into the real thing any day over some emu console.
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
Collectors ... What does that even mean, and how does it apply to those crappy x-in-1 consoles? They're either emulation or cheap hardware, but cost premium for some reason. Having RGB as an option in real Megadrive and SNES, you have to be retarded to invest this much money in a Chinese famiclone with composite signal ran through a cheapo scaling circuit.

I know people want solutions that are ready to go, and don't want to solder RGB amps or other circuitry, but there sure seems to be a market for upgraded original hardware. I know the highest profit margins are in the Chinese crap, but real hardware is the only way to fly. I'll take a flash cartridge or a multi kit plugged into the real thing any day over some emu console.

totally agree - but on the other hand you have some new FPGA options like Analogue's Super NT. Which looks promising. I actually would've bought one if they hadn't blatantly padded shipping to make some extra cash. But my point is, as you also pointed out, these systems are known among our scene to be complete garbage. This is mainly because they are. But when I played this Super Retro Trio, I couldn't help but think about how close they were honestly. The SNES is damn close to being excellent. If they only just got that ONE ELEMENT right...like, really nailed it - then your $230 Analogue NT would be kind of pointless except for the bragging rights. You know?

I think the market for this garbage is more over-saturated than ever, and if just one of these crappy companies decided to shock us with something truly good it would be kind of amazing.
 

MrRobotFactory

Kuroko's Training Dummy
Joined
Sep 17, 2013
Posts
78
Collectors ... What does that even mean, and how does it apply to those crappy x-in-1 consoles? They're either emulation or cheap hardware, but cost premium for some reason. Having RGB as an option in real Megadrive and SNES, you have to be retarded to invest this much money in a Chinese famiclone with composite signal ran through a cheapo scaling circuit.

I know people want solutions that are ready to go, and don't want to solder RGB amps or other circuitry, but there sure seems to be a market for upgraded original hardware. I know the highest profit margins are in the Chinese crap, but real hardware is the only way to fly. I'll take a flash cartridge or a multi kit plugged into the real thing any day over some emu console.
This. I'm absolutely fine with a flash cart and real hardware.
 

famicommander

Tak enabled this rank change
15 Year Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Posts
13,381
AtGames sucks, Hyperkin sucks, Retro Bit sucks.

News at 11:00.
 

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,490
True. But at least Hyperkin > Retrobit > Atgames. Hyperkin actually makes a decent product once in a while. Probably by accident.
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
True. But at least Hyperkin > Retrobit > Atgames. Hyperkin actually makes a decent product once in a while. Probably by accident.

I feel like all these companies' business models are based on getting everything wrong constantly. Then releasing things that slightly get everything wrong less. Repeat.
 

famicommander

Tak enabled this rank change
15 Year Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Posts
13,381
No, I think they're just cheap and incompetent. Often times the newer revision will be even worse. The most recent Atari Flashback has like a full second of lag when using paddle games.
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
No, I think they're just cheap and incompetent. Often times the newer revision will be even worse. The most recent Atari Flashback has like a full second of lag when using paddle games.

hahaha good lord! Yeah, you're right. It's like old straight to video VHS movies at the rental stores. The covers sometimes had photos and scenes not even in the film....they just need you to rent it. Same thing here, empty promises and hype.
 

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,490
No, I think they're just cheap and incompetent.

This. Retrobit in particular infuriates me as the products I've bought from them are good ideas and are actually engineered well, but the final product is still shit because of using cheap parts and no QA. If their portable SNES actually had a half decent screen it would be badass.

Hyperkin does similar things, getting so close to the mark but having one stupid thing wrong. Like the original Supaboy was plagued with issues which mostly got fixed. The later original model I bought and it works fine but has a composite screen of questionable quality. I still use it quite a bit. They released a new model with a much, much better screen, but they made it widescreen and stretched, with no ability to play with the proper aspect ratio. Fail. They supposedly just released a new new model that fixes this issue, we'll see how it does.

Atgames is just trash.
 
Last edited:

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
This. Retrobit in particular infuriates me as the products I've bought from them are good ideas and are actually engineered well, but the final product is still shit because of using cheap parts and no QA. If their portable SNES actually had a half decent screen it would be badass.

Hyperkin does similar things, getting so close to the mark but having one stupid thing wrong. Like the original Supaboy was plagued with issues which mostly got fixed. The later original model I bought and it works fine but has a composite screen of questionable quality. I still use it quite a bit. They released a new model with a much, much better screen, but they made it widescreen and stretched, with no ability to play with the proper aspect ratio. Fail. They supposedly just released a new new model that fixes this issue, we'll see how it does.

Atgames is just trash.

Have you noticed, Hyperkin's "Supaboy" - iirc when it first came out it was like $70. Then it had sound probs and what-not and they released a revision. Then that damn "Supaboy S" with the widescreen. They HAVE to know that people bitch about aspect ration. Of course they know this because they attempted to pander to that crowd with the Retron5....so, now they are releasing ANOTHER Supaboy with an aspect ration switch. So, finally they seem to get it...oh wait, it's $100. Yeah, I see what you did there. :oh_no:
 

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,490
The pricing did not escape me. Part of the reason I bought the Supaboy to begin with is it was cheap (I think I paid $60ish.) While I'd glady pay $100 for a portable SNES that was rad as hell, I'm going to have to try out the new model or see a ton of good reviews before I'll give them that kind of cash.
 

ysselcneogeo

Fio's Quartermaster
10 Year Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2012
Posts
484
I find that most hyperkin stuff sucks ass but, I do think the retron 5 is pretty sweet and personally have had no issues with it.
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
I find that most hyperkin stuff sucks ass but, I do think the retron 5 is pretty sweet and personally have had no issues with it.

I bought a Retron 5 at release and hated it - but I hear they fixed a lot of issues with subsequent FW updates?
 

BanishingFlatsAC

formerly DZ
15 Year Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2006
Posts
4,728
The Hyperkin 6 button Genesis and NES Cadet pads are great. The optical SNES mouse works good, but it has a wonky connector.
 
Top